The compound of the present invention is a non-ring esterified salicylic acid compound, where salicylic acid is bonded via an ester linkage to ferulic acid. Ferulic acid is also known as methoxycinnamic acid.
Several patents describe esters of salicylic acids. See for instance U.S. Pat. No. 2,116,347 (Grether et al.) and EP 0676194 (Roussel Uclaf). The esters described for the most esters are alkyl esters of salicylic acid. Roussel Uclaf also mentions isopropylbenzyl salicylate. Neither Grether et al. nor Roussel Uclaf describes the ester of the present invention.
Grether's salicyloxy carboxylic acid esters further differ from the inventive compound in at least in that the Grether's compounds contain an ester group in place of a terminal carboxy group of the inventive compounds. Thus, the Grether compounds contain two ester bonds, whereas the inventive compound contains only one ester bond. The inventive compounds cannot be obtained by merely hydrolyzing the ester obtained by the Grether process, since the first ester linkage would be hydrolyzed first to produce salicylic acid and ferulic acid.